How is the tempting underwater treasure hunt carried out?

“There is no place in the depths of the ocean that humans cannot reach. Even if you are looking for a lost basketball on the bottom of the sea, you can find it as long as you spend enough money.” This is the creed of undersea treasure hunting experts.

In the summer of 1973, divers salvaged the treasure of the "Arkelandaem" ship that sank in the bay of Lund Island on the west coast of Norway. It was the cargo of the Dutch East India Company's sailing ship that sank 250 years ago. Part of the ship, the ship carried the wages of the Governor of Batabia and his company employees and 300,000 guilders in cash to buy spices. The ship failed to circumvent the North Sea to avoid pirate attacks and sank in Lund. near the island. Efforts to salvage these huge sums of money were immediately carried out, but all was not recovered. Later, because gold and silver coins were often fished out with fishing nets, the locals called it the "Treasure of Wheels", making it almost universally known that treasures from sunken ships can be obtained here. At that time, the spice ships of the Dutch East India Company outperformed Arab merchants and the British merchant fleet and dominated the European market. This was because the company chose to sail south from the Atlantic Ocean, sail eastward around the Cape of Good Hope, and then go north along the east coast of Africa to India, Burma, and Fast routes to the Malay Peninsula and the Straits of Malacca. It is said that the above incident was an accidental tragedy on an unfamiliar route.

The divers who succeeded in salvaging the treasure were two Swedes and a Norwegian who were out for fun. By a completely accidental opportunity, they salvaged and divided up the treasure. It only took 10 days to salvage a considerable amount. 200 million yen in gold and silver coins. It is said that among these currencies, there are many very valuable Dutch silver coins and Spanish silver coins from the 17th century. News of this upstart spread quickly to all corners of the world. Therefore, the craze for adventure and treasure hunting among Japanese diving clubs also surged. There were even many books about treasure hunting in bookstores.

It is estimated that there are about a million sunken ships hidden around the world, ranging from canoes from prehistoric times to German-made midget submarines from World War II. They attract undersea gold diggers with dreams of making a fortune. Almost every year there are exciting new discoveries, such as the recently discovered Japanese submarine 1-52, which sank during World War II. The 4,409 pounds of gold bars fully loaded on it are still being salvaged.

The development of air-skin diving technology allows humans to move freely on the seabed like fish. On the one hand, this has promoted the rapid development of academic investigations and exploration activities. On the other hand, it should also be noted that with the As a result, activities aimed at seizing legendary treasure ships and treasures, which are completely different from scientific research, have been revived.

For those adventurers who dream of making a fortune, the wrecked ship on the bottom of the sea and the treasures in its cargo are a great temptation. This is not just a romantic story about treasure ship exploration and treasure island exploration. Once a wreck is located, it can be easily found using light air diving gear. Since the cargo contains many treasures of extremely high economic value, it can stimulate the endless greed of these adventurers.

In the past decade or so, foreign news agencies have published countless reports on this kind of situation, especially ships from the 17th and 18th centuries that sank in US waters, and have become the targets of their hunting. Legend has it that pirates in the 17th century often sank their plundered treasures into the deep sea and hid them temporarily. Regardless of its authenticity, in August 1971, local divers discovered about 9,000 gold, silver, and copper coins on the seabed 16 kilometers away from the Bahamas Beach in the southeast of the Florida Peninsula. It is said that this is the coin that the famous Dutch pirate Peter Hein sank when he robbed the Spanishiu Main in Imperia in 1628.

On December 10, 1971, a gold coin was discovered on the seabed of Cape Platon on the east coast of Canada and sold for US$1,000 at an auction at a gallery in New York City. It is said that this is one of the gold and silver coins transported by Louis XV of France on the French ship Rougamore for immigrants from French Quebec. The ship sank in the waters of Cape Platon in 1765. Lake Sturm, a Dutch cartographer from Canada, and three divers from a civil engineering company explored the sunken site. Legend has it that the ship also left behind treasure worth $2 million. Sturm, known as the "Golden Man" in Canada, fished out 4,000 silver coins and 500 gold coins from the bottom of the sea.

Canada, now an independent country in the Commonwealth, was French Canada before the early 18th century. Many ration ships carrying supplies for the French army and fort watchmen appear to have been frequently wrecked off Pleton. Among them, the "Shamao" was discovered in June 1967. The ship sailed from the port of Brest in 1724 and was about to turn north to cross the Atlantic when it ran aground in a storm and sank in the waters of Platon. It was also the Sturm diving team that salvaged 1,000 gold coins and 12,000 silver coins from the ship. He consulted French naval records and found out the location of the sunken ship on the seabed. He learned that the wooden ship was 400 meters long, 9 meters wide, and could carry 600 tons of cargo. It only took him 3 months to get the treasure. From this point of view, he is a speculator worthy of the title of "Golden Man".

This is the largest operation in Canadian history to salvage sunken treasure. The Sturm diving team has certainly become a veritable millionaire.

The equipment of the undersea gold diggers is definitely top-notch technology.

When working in shallow water, they mainly rely on a geomagnetometer, an instrument that detects cannons, anchors, propellers and other characteristic markers of shipwrecks through the interference of metal objects on the earth's magnetic field. The geomagnetometer was developed during World War II and was mainly used to detect submarines. Now its sensitivity has improved day by day and it can detect small objects buried under the sand layer. A geomagnetic meter costs only $16,000 today, half the price of 10 years ago. When engaging in deep-water exploration of large areas, treasure hunters use side-scanning sonar, which acts like a slim torpedo and can detect objects, such as masts or ship hulls, protruding from the sandy bottom of the ocean floor.

The new side-scanning sonar can scan 100 square miles of sea area every day and can detect small objects, such as oil drums, 3 miles below the sea level. Its detection results can also be directly input into the shipboard computer system to accurately locate the sunken ship by referring to the global positioning system, thus avoiding the time-consuming, laborious and inaccurate buoy positioning method. But the most advanced equipment for undersea gold diggers is the "remote-controlled underwater detector", which has more comprehensive functions and more accurate positioning. Although the price of each unit ranges from 100,000 to 2 million US dollars, salvage companies are still competing for it. Order. In 1998, this underwater robot discovered the steamship "Central America" ??that sank off the coast of North Carolina in 1875, carrying 3 tons of gold.

Phil Masters has been a history buff since childhood, and he has always fantasized about finding sunken treasure on the seabed. After several years of ideological struggle, in 1977, at the age of 40, he finally made up his mind to quit his job, moved his family to Florida in the southern United States, and began to learn how to find underwater treasures.

Masters established the "International Salvage Company". First, he discovered a British frigate that sank in 1711 near Nova Scotia, Canada, and fished out some shillings. Later, he found a ship believed to be the "Queen Anne's Revenge", the flagship of the famous "Blackbeard" pirate fleet, a sea devil who was rampant in the 18th century. After more than ten years of wandering at sea, Masters thought he was about to reach the pinnacle of his career: he discovered the Spanish galleon El Salvador. This ship disappeared off the coast of North Carolina in the United States in 1750. The ship was fully loaded with 89,200 pounds of cocoa, 240,000 pounds of silver coins and gold pesos.

"I want to make El Salvador as famous as the Titanic!" This is what drove Masters and hundreds of gold diggers to go to sea.

To find undersea treasures, advanced detection equipment is not enough. Treasure hunters must also conduct full investigation and research on historical materials. Florida gold prospector Jack Haskins often goes to the state archives to check historical documents. The focus of his investigation is the letters and cargo lists of the shipwrecked captains. He is currently tracking a Spanish fleet that crashed in the waters of Cuba in 1711. 's whereabouts. Spain is a very bureaucratic country. The captain has to record all the major and minor events that happen every day in triplicate and report to the king. Haskins hopes to find some evidence and eventually develop a treasure map.

The reason why Masters found the "Queen Anne's Revenge" was based on a court record in 1719: "Blackbeard"'s men mentioned in court that the ship had been in the North before it sank. Stopped at Bayford, Carolina. So Masters, with the help of the U.S. Army Engineer Group, took a closer look at how the waterways near Bayford had changed over the past century. Masters claimed that he was "only a second-rate diver, but an excellent scholar." He preferred to be called a "marine historian" because what he salvaged was a glittering history of shipwrecks.

Underwater Jinke not only salvages "sunken wealth", but also makes full use of the historical value of sunken ships to make money. "RMS Titanic Company", the legal salvage company of "Titanic", has sold the exclusive exhibition rights of the ship's items to "SFX Entertainment" for US$8.5 million per year. Masters figured he could make money off the Queen Anne's Revenge, even though it contained nothing of value.

"The name 'Blackbeard' itself is a big selling point. There are few people in history who can make people so afraid." Masters also plans to make a four-part TV series about this big pirate. And replicas of items on the ship were sold, including a syringe that Blackbeard's men were said to have used to inject themselves with mercury to treat syphilis. From this point of view, film rights and physical exhibitions are the best ways to profit from the sunken ship. The salvage company claimed: "The movie box office and video revenue of "Titanic" are more than the money earned from salvaging any sunken ship. "In addition, some companies also use the Internet to sell shipwreck souvenirs. The "Mel Fisher Treasure Hunting Website" advertises "You can also own a piece of history" and sells them for $45 a piece made of silver from the shipwreck. toothpicks.

However, archaeologists are devastated by the "pirate" behavior of these undersea gold pirates. They believe that salvage for the sole purpose of money is a serious damage to the earth's cultural heritage. A typical example is the "De Brac", a British warship that sank in Delaville in 1798 and was discovered by a salvage company in 1995. They drilled several large holes in the hull and took away everything of value, including artillery, navigation tables, etc., which deprived historians of an important basis for studying the strength of the British navy at that time.

The salvage company countered that the barbaric treatment of sunken ships has long been a thing of the past, and now they are very careful to protect its archaeological value. "Every salvager is an archaeological expert." To obtain government permission to salvage, companies must ensure that they treat undersea artifacts well and protect the integrity of the wreck. For example, in Florida, salvage companies are required to submit archaeological reports regularly and hand over all "worthless" things, that is, items not made of rare metals and jewelry, to the state government for research, and the state government is also entitled to a share. 20% of the sunken treasure.

UNESCO is planning a global ban on commercial salvage of sunken ships over 100 years old. But the proposed law has met with strong opposition from salvage companies on the grounds that many major archaeological discoveries are made by private organizations. In fact, it is currently impossible to establish order in the oceans, which account for 70% of the earth's area.